You’re living the dream that so many wish they could live: you own your own business. We don’t need to tell you that entrepreneurship is not always all it’s romanticised to be -- owning your own business presents a unique set of challenges, to say the least. You’ve...

When the business becomes the main focus, as it is for many business owners, a sense often develops that there will be time at some point in the future to take care of your family and personal life. This may not be true if specific goals and objectives aren’t defined,...

A LinkedIn profile novice A few years ago, I made the transition from a traditional marketing professional to an internet marketing professional. The first day after my promotion, I cockily strolled into my boss’s office, ready for some serious discussion about...

Some may agree we have reached a plateau of invention... or perhaps not. Robert Gordon published a piece recently in the Wall Street Journal titled Why Innovation Won't Save Us. He argues that our prime innovations are behind us. The period from 1875 to about 2000 had...

Like all other facets of society, the business world has undergone seismic changes in the past year. However, one operational element—the recruitment and hiring of quality talent—remains unchanged. If anything, the competition to draw new applicants to open job...

Increasingly, businesses in search of talented job candidates are turning to social media as part of their overall recruitment strategy. “Social recruiting” seeks to leverage the power of various social media platforms to strengthen an employer brand, attract interest...

Every business needs a strategic plan. Every business needs a business plan. It’s knowing precisely what each plan entails and when that plan can be of most use that makes the difference between these two essential documents. Let’s start by defining the purpose behind...

“If you don’t know where you're going, any road will take you there.” -  Lewis Carroll, as paraphrased by George Harrison The Cheshire Cat and our favourite Beatle didn’t necessarily have business owners in mind when they suggested that an ambiguous destination is...

Project Management for Small Business XV The last topic to tackle in this project management series is assessing the success of a project. I introduced some previous topics by explaining that you probably think the task, such as issue management, is simple….but doing...

Who is your Harvey Nyquist? Have you ever heard of Harvey Nyquist? Not many people have. In fact, with all the buzz about Apple, Google, and the like, Bell Labs doesn't even come to mind very often. Bell Labs is probably the single most influential organisation to the...

It boils down to a matter of trust. Did you see the story about Yahoo saying "no more telecommuting?" When the Yahoo staff heard Marissa Mayer from Google was taking over the helm of Yahoo, they probably didn't see that coming. Mayer has brought in other perks such as...

Salespeople all agree about the importance of “ABC” (Always Be Closing), but there’s considerable diversity of opinion on how to go about it. The best salespeople understand that working towards a close is part of a longer, more complicated process. Every step along...

Most businesses offer a solution to problems or otherwise fulfill a need experienced by their target audience. They can only go on doing this if, in exchange for delivering a valued good or service, they get paid for doing so. As part of overall business operations,...

Employee recruitment, training, and orientation are critical to the success of any organisation. A well-thought-out and executed onboarding plan helps set new employees up for success. However, the current pandemic has made the hiring process more challenging than...

Kick-off your business in 2021 on the right foot by starting at the foundation of every successful business: strategy. The strategy is even more important for your business after the year we all had last year, where many of our strategies went off course. Strategic...

In “normal” times, businesses often face the challenge of reducing expenditures while maintaining efficiency and productivity within their business operations. As we have noted before, “excessive costs—which also detract from funding new customer acquisitions or...

At some point, every business makes needless expenditures that sap valuable time and resources from other projects, and damage the bottom line. These excessive costs—which also detract from funding new customer acquisitions or product upgrades—often perpetuate...

Have more efficient meetings by removing secret time-wasters. For most businesses, meetings are an essential component for getting things done. At the same time, poorly led and organised meetings are a time-consuming swamp that bedevils business leaders at every turn....

"How do I make my business more efficient?" is question business owners or CEOs might ask themselves every day. While what constitutes "efficiency" might differ from one industry to the next, generally speaking, an efficient business is one that manufactures (and/or...

These days, employees are faced with an unprecedented onslaught of workplace distractions, chief among them all the apps and digital sideshows that now pervade everyone’s consciousness. With all of these productivity killers, it's no wonder employees complain that...

Depending on who you talk to, the use of email is one of the greatest advances in business communications or the worst thing to affect productivity in the past several decades. Every CEO and business owner knows what it’s like to open his or her inbox to a deluge of...

We hear a lot of talk about the importance of employee engagement, but how well do members of your sales team engage with current and prospective clients? Whenever a customer and salesperson talk directly, or a prospect reaches out to a business on their social media...

Businesses are often haunted by customers who consistently pay their invoices later than expected, or by those who don’t pay at all. A great deal of time, effort, and resources can be consumed by chasing after delinquent accounts receivables, while the effect on cash...

The Wall Street Journal's Future of Data: Encoded in DNA describes a project running at Harvard that is using DNA as a storage medium for digital information. The project team translated a book, a text on genomic engineering no less, into actual DNA. This article was...

I have had the chance to meet a lot of coaches over the years. Life Coaches, Business Coaches, Executive Coaches, Leadership Coaches, Law of Attraction Coaches, and even a Speaking Coach. You name a type of coach and I most likely know one. Coaching was touted as the...

Even at companies with great products and technologies, employees are invaluable. After all, someone needs to develop those new innovations and maintain your technology. It's no secret that a company is only as strong as its weakest link.  But even though employers...